"Those [religious] people..."

I never get used to hearing secular Israelis complain loudly and unabashedly about "those [religious] people". 

The most common themes found in these rants are:

1.  "Those people are unpatriotic because they don't serve in the army." - An interesting/convenient generalization since the number of secular and religious Israelis who ask for and receive deferments from compulsory service in the IDF is about equal.  Conveniently glossed over (or simply ignored) are the following:

a) There is a very distinct difference between the Chareidi (black hat/Hasidic) and Dati Leumi (religious nationalist) approach to compulsory army service.  While there are a relatively small number of Chareidim who now serve in special combat units in the Israeli army, most Chareidim ask for a perfectly legal exemption under the law.  However, virtually all Dati Leumi men not only serve... but as a group they tend to gravitate towards the most elite of the IDF combat units. 

b) By comparison, a large percentage of secular Israelis who receive exemptions from army service do so on much more shaky legal grounds (i.e. personal convenience or politics rather than core ideology).

c) Among women who request exemptions from army service, there is a very interesting distinction that falls along religious lines and which is ignored by people who complain about 'those people' not doing army service.  That distinction is called 'Shirut Leumi' (national service).  Secular girls who ask for and receive exemptions almost never perform some alternate form of national service while religious girls (at least in the Dati Leumi camp... I don't have a clue about how the Chareidi girls handle this) almost universally do.  This service can take many forms, but is often performed in the capacity of hospital volunteers, teachers, and youth advisers in development towns...roles that benefit both secular and religious Israelis.

2.  "Those people are parasites living off the government." - Again there is a seemingly willful glossing over of the very real distinction between the two main religious groups in Israel; 'Chareidi' and 'Dati Leumi'.  However, even if one was to lump these two very different worlds into one big bag... I would be interested to see how the ledger of government payments (including welfare, child support and other benefits) stacks up along purely secular and religious lines.  My guess is that yes, the religious community overall may receive a slightly larger percentage of such payments... but that the secular community is not far behind in terms of those who either can't or won't work/support themselves and/or their families.  If anyone has some hard facts to support or discredit my assumption I would be happy to post them here.

3. "Those people teach their kids to hate us." - This is the one that hurts me the most.  While there are certainly religious parents that point at some of the more unsavory aspects of secular society as a cautionary tale rather than as a lesson in brotherly love/tolerance, I am equally certain that there are plenty of secular parents who expose their children to the full catechism of "those [religious] people..." statements which I have listed here (and many more).  The difference can be found in which statements are considered more politically acceptable by Israeli society. 

The best litmus test of what is, and isn't, PC can be found in the statements that are entered into the public record by our politicians.  To illustrate this point I'd like to share the following:

a) At the start of the most recent Knesset session, MK Chaim Oron (Meretz) ascended the Knesset podium and actually proposed the following be codified into Israeli Law:

"Any person who attempts to influence a minor, to become more religiously observant of Judaism,(להחזיר בתשובה) will be subject to arrest and imprisonment for 6 months."  *

I was stunned when I read this.  It sounded like an edict handed down under Greek or Roman rule... not something that would be uttered in the Israeli Knesset!  To my knowledge MK Oron didn't propose a corollary law stating that anyone who influenced a minor to become less religious,(להחזיר בשאלה) receive a similar punishment. 

b) Entire political parties have been established (and widely supported by the Israeli electorate) on platforms made up almost entirely of anti-religious initiatives (Shinui being the most unapologetic example).  While there are several pro-religious political parties in the Knesset whose goals include advancing the agenda of the religious community (or some sub-set thereof), I don't know of any parties that have had a platform exclusively built upon advancing anti-secular initiatives.

Once upon a time in the US there was no social barrier/taboo to using pejorative and demeaning terminology when speaking about minorities.  Today if one were to use the 'N' word in a public setting or even call a black man 'boy', he/she would be publicly excoriated.  Likewise, even the casual use of the phrase 'Those people' when referring to any group is considered insulting and demeaning.

Yet here in Israel there is no such social barrier to making the sweeping statements vilifying large swaths of our society.  That politicians and private citizens alike feel completely comfortable making bigoted, wrong-headed statements about "Those people..." is a frightening indication of the hatred (and often self-hatred) that has been allowed to infect Israeli discourse... and society.

* Source

Hat Tip goes to my friend Jameel, proprietor of The Muqata